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Post-UCAT Discussion 2020

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I think I'm safe as a UK applicant as we tend to score lower on average than ANZ. UK 90th percentile was 2800 last year - considering the jump in ANZ that would result in a hypothetical 2890 cutoff.
Honestly, my opinion is that people are just becoming more aware of the scores required by UCAT. Last year no one was certain what was defined as a 'good score' in ANZ - the test is constantly changing. Now 2020 swings around with the majority of candidates rooted in a score ≥2840, thus causing an increased 90th percentile cutoff.
Keeping this in mind, if the test remains constant and doesn't change sections at all, we could be looking at each year of UCAT becoming more and more competitive than the last with continuous pushing of the boundaries!

This could remain until finally a plateau is hit, I wouldn't be surprised if this year marks the plateau of results as they cease to increase🙃
 
Achiever said:
I think I'm safe as a UK applicant as we tend to score lower on average than ANZ. UK 90th percentile was 2800 last year - considering the jump in ANZ that would result in a hypothetical 2890 cutoff.
Honestly, my opinion is that people are just becoming more aware of the scores required by UCAT. Last year no one was certain what was defined as a 'good score' in ANZ - the test is constantly changing. Now 2020 swings around with the majority of candidates rooted in a score ≥2840, thus causing an increased 90th percentile cutoff.
Keeping this in mind, if the test remains constant and doesn't change sections at all, we could be looking at each year of UCAT becoming more and more competitive than the last with continuous pushing of the boundaries!

This could remain until finally a plateau is hit, I wouldn't be surprised if this year marks the plateau of results as they cease to increase🙃
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Wait you do realise that as a UK applicant your UCAT UK can't be used in ANZ right? The UCAT ANZ can be used to apply to ANZ and the UK but the UCAT UK can only be used to apply to the UK unless they've changed things up...
 
Honestly I'm so scared that the 90th percentile cutoff might change - I got 2920 (exactly on the 90th percentile)
Though I don't think that I actually stand a chance anyway, considering the increase in the number of test takers.
 
Dragonfly said:
Honestly I'm so scared that the 90th percentile cutoff might change - I got 2920 (exactly on the 90th percentile)
Though I don't think that I actually stand a chance anyway, considering the increase in the number of test takers.
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Worth pointing out that 90th percentile isn't a cutoff used by any school, and in fact, no school uses percentile at all, just the numerical score. So it really should make no difference to how competitive you are if it changes. Percentiles are just a reference tool for you to compare yourself to the rest of the applicant pool.
 
Dragonfly said:
Honestly I'm so scared that the 90th percentile cutoff might change - I got 2920 (exactly on the 90th percentile)
Though I don't think that I actually stand a chance anyway, considering the increase in the number of test takers.
Click to expand...
Refer to this post:
ucatboy said:
imo it doesn't matter whether the 9th decile "cutoff" goes up or down in subsequent reports, because its definition is arbitrary: Pearson might choose to define it as the lowest 90th percentile score, the middle or the highest. Regardless, that doesn't change the raw data (everyone's scores) since everyone (well, almost everyone) has already sat the test. If you're ranked 1400th out of 14000, no matter whether Pearson rounds that to 89th, 90th or 91st percentile, there's no changing the fact that you're still ranked 1400th. You won't miss out on an interview offer just because one day Pearson decided to change their definition of 90th percentile. This is what unis mean when they say they look at your raw scores, not your percentile - percentiles are useful for a quick comparison/rough idea of where you stand, but not so much for anything else.
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TL;DR: percentiles are just a matter of semantics, their definition is arbitrary. Your raw score (what matters) hasn't changed, and neither has anyone else's. Pearson could decide one day to call every score a 99th percentile, but that doesn't change the fact that you scored 2920 and your relative rank amongst others is x. Those are the things that matter.
 
Yeah this is massively worrying. Ngl I got 2890 and thought that I'd be decently comfortable with an ATAR of approx 99.5-99.6 incoming, but these stats have fully blown that out of the water. So confused as to where to go from here, anyone in a similar situation?
 
bigworryplshelp said:
Yeah this is massively worrying. Ngl I got 2890 and thought that I'd be decently comfortable with an ATAR of approx 99.5-99.6 incoming, but these stats have fully blown that out of the water. So confused as to where to go from here, anyone in a similar situation?
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We just gotta wait and see, I'm a non-standard applicant with barely 2-3 unis open to me and a score of 2950 doesn't seem so clear and comfortable anymore. Everything that'll happen now is out of your hands, so best thing you can do is hope. Good luck!
 
IQ ™ said:
We just gotta wait and see, I'm a non-standard applicant with barely 2-3 unis open to me and a score of 2950 doesn't seem so clear and comfortable anymore. Everything that'll happen now is out of your hands, so best thing you can do is hope. Good luck!
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Hope and shift your focus to ATAR/GPA (where relevant). Still plenty of ground to be made or lost on that side and that’s an active thing you can do something about.
 
Another reminder that “what are my chances?” and “what percentile is this roughly” and “what ATAR do I need with x UCAT score?” questions are not to be asked until the percentile calculator is released and our UCAT results discussion 2020 thread has been opened. This is for your benefit just as much as ours!
 
TKAO said:
Wait you do realise that as a UK applicant your UCAT UK can't be used in ANZ right? The UCAT ANZ can be used to apply to ANZ and the UK but the UCAT UK can only be used to apply to the UK unless they've changed things up...
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Yes, of course! I'm speaking hypothetically as if the situation in ANZ was a predictor of the interim deciles in the UK (To be released September 15th/16th)
 
pt88 said:
Would be interesting to see a state by state analysis when full stats come out
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To my knowledge, that kind of geographical data has never been made publicly available for the UCAT, including in the UK. Looking at past technical reports, they only analyse gender, age groups, ethnicity, first language and educational attainment. That said, I wouldn't bet too much on getting to see the full stats of this year's UCAT ANZ anytime soon, when last year's still hasn't come out.
 
ucatboy said:
To my knowledge, that kind of geographical data has never been made publicly available for the UCAT, including in the UK. Looking at past technical reports, they only analyse gender, age groups, ethnicity, first language and educational attainment. That said, I wouldn't bet too much on getting to see the full stats of this year's UCAT ANZ anytime soon, when last year's still hasn't come out.
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By educational attainment do you mean school leavers vs uni students?
 
yuzzy said:
By educational attainment do you mean school leavers vs uni students?
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This is taken from the 2019 UCAT UK report, they differentiate by below Bachelor's degree level (I guess you could call that the "school leaver" category) and Honour's degree or above.
[MedStudentsOnline.com.au] Post-UCAT Discussion 2020
Can we just take a minute to appreciate the fact that a 15 year old (possibly even younger) sat the UCAT with an Honours degree? 😌😌 imo it's a real shame they had to hide the scores of the category (since there's only one person in it), it would be interesting to see what he/she got.
 
Bruh. I know someone graduating uni this year age 18 and i thought that was crazy. Although IIRC everyone graduates with honours in the UK unless youre a very poor student. Might need to ask our resident Briton Achiever here.

Edit: The UK Honours degree system for undergraduates
Yeah it seems so. Still bloody impressive
 
ucatboy said:
This is taken from the 2019 UCAT UK report, they differentiate by below Bachelor's degree level (I guess you could call that the "school leaver" category) and Honour's degree or above.
View attachment 3949
Can we just take a minute to appreciate the fact that a 15 year old (possibly even younger) sat the UCAT with an Honours degree? 😌😌 imo it's a real shame they had to hide the scores of the category (since there's only one person in it), it would be interesting to see what he/she got.
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" An Honours degree refers to a 20-credit program in which the average student taking a full course load normally graduates within four years. "
This person must've graduated high school at age 10, started uni at age 11 and finished it by 15. Must've been an error???
 
yuzzy said:
" An Honours degree refers to a 20-credit program in which the average student taking a full course load normally graduates within four years. "
This person must've graduated high school at age 10, started uni at age 11 and finished it by 15. Must've been an error???
Click to expand...

Searching that quote gives me a canadian result? Are you sure your talking about the UK here
 
dotwingz said:
Searching that quote gives me a canadian result? Are you sure your talking about the UK here
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" In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, bachelor's degrees are normally awarded "with honours" after three years of study"
My bad my bad, it's actually three years...
Still, this person must've graduated HS at 11. At 11 I was learning how to touch type!
Edit: I still can't touch type :(
 
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